There are encouraging signs that some Arab views of Israel are changing
Palestinian protestors wave their national flag during clashes with Israeli security forces near Nahal Oz border crossing with Israel, east of Gaza City, on February 25, 2014 following a demonstration to commemorate the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre of 1994 in Hebron. Jewish extremist Baruch Goldstein killed 29 Palestinian worshipers at the Ibrahimi mosque, known by Jews as the Tomb of the Patriarchs, in the West Bank city on February 25, 1994.
DENVER, Colorado — For over 80 years the Arab world has been overwhelmingly hostile to Israel. The Arabs have fought nine wars and waged two intifadas with Israel since 1947, yet, recently, there have been cracks in the wall of Arab hostility towards Israel that provides some hope for Secretary of State John Kerry’s missions to Israel and the West Bank.
Take Egypt, a country with a cold peace with Israel for the last 35 years. Who, in 1979, could have imagined Israel allowing over 5,000 Egyptian soldiers with tanks, airplanes and Apache helicopters into the Eastern and Central Sinai? Who could imagine the alleged joint military cooperation against the 2,000 jihadists in Sinai?
Or take traditionally hostile Saudi Arabia. Recently, Saudi Prince Turki Bin Faisal, the intelligence chief, in a Munich conference praised Tsipi Livni saying that he could “understand why (she was) chosen to be the Israeli negotiator.” There have been persistent rumors about Saudi-Israeli military cooperation in a possible Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear facilities, including refueling, intelligence and over flight permission.
Or take Jordan, which has maintained a cold peace with Israel since 1994, and the West Bank, which from 2000 to 2006 participated in the second intifada that killed over 1,000 Israelis. Yet, last December saw the signing of the Israeli-Jordanian-West Bank water pact that envisioned a Red Sea-Dead Sea water program replete with a desalinization plant in Aqaba.
Morocco (2009) and Tunisia (2013) have even hosted Holocaust conferences, with Israeli participation, that memorialize this key event in Jewish history. Last month a Jordanian website carried an article saying that denying the Holocaust was dangerous and Arabs should learn lessons from the Holocaust and fight anti-Semitism.
Palestinian leaders and media have also moved down the track.
In 2012 Farouk Kaddoumi, a veteran leftist, dropped a bombshell when he opined that perhaps the West Bank should be returned to Jordan.
Prime Minister Abu Mazen stirred up a storm also in 2012 when he stated that, although he was born in northern Israel in Safed, he did not want to return there. Last month, even a Palestinian lecturer at Al Quds University on the West Bank published a paper calling for internationalization of East Jerusalem, recognizing Israel as a Jewish state, giving Israel practical control over the Jordan Valley and demilitarizing the West Bank.
Earlier this month the Palestinian leader Abu Mazen, in a rare interview, spoke of a demilitarized army on the West Bank.
On Qatar’s Al Jazeera last December, a TV host exclaimed “Why don’t the Syrians take a lesson from the Israeli army which tries, as much as it can, to avoid bombing civilians in Lebanon or Palestine.”
More of the 270,000 Palestinians living in East Jerusalem wish to live in a Jewish state (35%) than a Palestinian state (30%)—and the rest are not decided. If East Jerusalem became part of Israel 54% say they would stay in Israel and only 27% say they would move!
The majority of the 1.6 million Israeli Arab citizens also would rather live in Israel. Only 23% of Israeli Arabs are willing to live in a Palestinian state, while 60% support Israel being a Jewish state with Hebrew as its official first language. A stunning 55% believe Israel is the best place in the world to live.
Many people are surprised to learn that some Arab states have developed a more positive view of Israel.
With the United States partially withdrawing from the region, Sunni leaders face a probably nuclear Iran leading a Shiite coalition (Iraq, Syria, Hezbollah-dominated Lebanon) alone. With, by 2016, its world-class hi-tech development (over 100 foreign R&D centers, 22 billion dollars of exports) of the world’s first integrated anti-missile defense system (Iron Dome, David’s Sling, Arrow 2, Arrow 3), atomic capability, excellent air force and strong electronic warfare capability, Israel is the region’s premier military power.
By the Indian logic—“the enemy of my enemy is my friend”—Israel is the only game in town.
And now, on the ground, many Sunni Arabs, also seeing Israel as a possible savior from the greater threat of Shiite nuclear Iran, are beginning to have second thoughts about the Jewish state.
None of this means that the Sunnis might not decide to make peace with Iran or the United States might change course and stop the Iranian nuclear program. Deep enmity towards Israel remains in much of the Arab world. But, it does reflect the amazing complexity of the Middle East today, that some Sunni Arab states are even contemplating dealing with Tel Aviv, if only temporarily, and that some Arabs at least are starting to see Israel in a more positive light.
In this environment, Secretary of State John Kerry, despite all odds, may yet have a shot at a peace agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
Jonathan Adelman is a professor at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver.
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